Brussels, 03/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member states are getting slower at transposing European directives. The single market scoreboard published on 28 February by the European Commission highlights this slowdown during the May to November 2013 period. The number of infringements opened by the European Commission, however, remains stable.
The percentage of Single Market directives that has not been transposed into national law in time is 0.7 %. This figure is slightly higher than in previous years, when the figure had even fallen on a consistent basis. The 1.0 % transposition deficit target set by the European Council has not been met by five member states: Belgium, Italy, Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia. Another alarming fact: only eight of the 28 member states have a transposition deficit below 0.5%, the target proposed by the European Commission. These states include Malta, Denmark, Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, Estonia, Slovakia and Portugal.
Nonetheless, with regard to ensuring application of the European directives, the number of infringements has remained stable over the most recent six-month period examined at around 800 cases. The average number of procedures opened per country is 30. This figure is double in Italy, where the number of infringement cases is higher than in any other member state (73). The Baltic countries, on the other hand, were at the bottom of this league table with around ten infringements each. The most common infringements involved taxation, the environment and air transport.
Overall, the Commission considers that the EU Pilot Project set up in 2007 has been effective in quickly resolving transposition and compliance problems with regard to EU law. Since 2007, the number of infringements has fallen by 38%. (MD)